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Coles, Gosper tell it like it is

Jacquelin Magnay | August 7, 2008

AUSTRALIA'S two International Olympic Committee members, Kevan
Gosper and Phil Coles, engaged in a loud slanging match at a
cocktail party held by the Hong Kong Jockey Club at its Beijing
clubhouse on Tuesday night.

Witnesses say the two started yelling at each other towards the
end of the evening, with Gosper accusing Coles of leaking
information to a Sydney newspaper about Gosper's tenuous hold on
the chairmanship of the IOC's press commission.

Coles denied the claim and the vitriol began.

"You Aussies know how to get down and dirty," one guest at the
function said. The two didn't touch each other, but that,
apparently, was the extent of the decorum.

Gosper, who is from Melbourne, and the Sydney-based Coles have
never got on. Their most famous falling-out centred around
Melbourne's failed bid for the 1996 Olympics, when Gosper accused
Coles of campaigning against the Australian city so that it would
lose and he could pitch Sydney's candidature.

Gosper blamed Coles for the media frenzy that accompanied his
daughter Sophie carrying the Athens Olympic torch and his prime
role in the Sydney Olympics ticket fiasco.

That long, ugly history is said to have spewed forth as the
waiters were starting to clear the tables.

Gosper was particularly upset after his torrid week. He had had
to apologise to the world's press for misleading them about
internet access. He had had to retract claims IOC president Jacques
Rogge, or his underlings, had forged a deal with the Chinese
authorities. And he had been forced to face his IOC colleagues, who
weren't too happy with his public grandstanding. Coles, in the
background, was rubbing his hands in glee.

Gosper's absence from Jacques Rogge's press conference on
Saturday night  an event at which Gosper usually takes charge
 was duly noted.

Australia's third IOC member, John Coates, left the jockey club
minutes before the stoush began. It is not sure which of his IOC
colleagues Coates would have backed. An astute political figure,
Coates has famously both aligned with and distanced himself from
the two men.

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